Bird studies with a camera

by Frank M. Chapman

From his pilot, Godwin, Audubon secured some information concerning the Gannets that then nested on the top of the Rock. He writes: “The whole surface is perfectly covered with nests, placed about two feet apart, in such regular order that you may look through the lines as you would look through those of a planted patch of sweet potatoes or cabbages. The fishermen who kill these birds to get their flesh for codfish bait ascend in parties of six or eight, armed with clubs; sometimes, indeed, the party comprises the crews of several vessels. As they reach the top, the birds, alarmed, rise with a noise like thunder, and fly off in such a hurried, fearful confusion as to throw each other down, often falling on each other until there is a bank of them many feet high. The men strike them down and kill them until fatigued or satisfied. Five hundred and forty have been thus murdered in one hour by six men. The birds are skinned with little care, and the flesh cut off in chunks; it will keep fresh about a fortnight. So great is the destruction of these birds annually that their flesh supplies the bait for upward of forty fishing boats which lie close to Bryon Island, each summer.”

This slaughter was evidently attended by some danger, for not only did the sitting birds bite viciously, but old fishermen in the Magdalens state that if the invader of the Gannets’ domain on the summit of the Rock should have happened to be caught in a rush of stampeded birds, he could with difficulty have avoided being carried off the edge of the cliff.

In concluding his description of the Rock, Audubon says: “No man who has not seen what we have this day can form the least idea of the impression the sight made on our minds.” One need not be a naturalist, therefore, to realize the depth of his disappointment when the pilot told him that the wind was too high to permit them to land on the Rock. However, they did not leave without at least making an attempt. A boat was launched, manned by the pilot, two sailors, Audubon’s son John, and Tom Lincoln, for whom Lincoln’s Finch, discovered subsequently in Labrador, was named; but after an hour’s absence they returned without having made a landing, and the increasing force of the wind compelled them to continue their voyage to the northward.

Apparently the first naturalist to set foot on Bird Rock was Dr. Henry Bryant, of Boston, who landed there June 23, 1860. This was before the days of the lighthouse, and Dr. Bryant reached the top of the Rock only after a climb which he characterizes as both “difficult and dangerous.” In addition to the Gannets, which he found resting on the ledges on the face of the Rock, he found these birds nesting over the entire northerly half of the summit, and after measuring the surface occupied by them, he estimated that this one colony alone contained no less than one hundred thousand birds, while the number living on the sides of the Rock and Little Bird he placed at fifty thousand.

The position of the Rock, at the gateway to Canadian ports, makes it particularly dangerous to vessels plying in these waters, and in 1869 a lighthouse was erected on its summit. While constructing the light keeper’s dwelling and storehouses, the Government built two cranes—one on the northerly, the other on the southerly side of the Rock—for use in hoisting supplies. There are also now three other places where by means of ladders and ropes one may ascend. The top of the Rock was thus made more accessible, and the birds were consequently less protected from the attacks of fishermen. It is said, also, that the light keepers did not appreciate the companionship of the Gannets, and made special efforts to drive the birds from the nesting site which they so long had held undisturbed.

82. A corner of the Rock.

Hence, when Mr. C. J. Maynard visited the Rock in 1872, he found that the colony of Gannets on its summit contained only five thousand birds, which, nine years later, Mr. William Brewster reports had decreased to fifty pairs. Mr. Brewster also noted a fresh cause for the destruction of the eggs of the birds nesting on the sides of the Rock, in the shape of a cannon which had been introduced shortly before his visit. He writes: “At each discharge the frightened Murres fly from the Rock in clouds, nearly every sitting bird taking its egg into the air between its thighs and dropping it after flying a few yards. This was repeatedly observed during our visit, and more than once a perfect shower of eggs fell into the water about our boat.” While the birds have become comparatively accustomed to the report of the guncotton bomb, which has succeeded the cannon, large numbers still leave the Rock each time a bomb is exploded, so that it continues to be a means of destroying not only eggs but young birds, which are carried off the narrow ledges by the precipitous flight of their parents.

Since that date (1881) Cory, Lucas, Palmer, Bishop, and doubtless others, have visited Bird Rock, but with the entire disappearance of the Gannets from its summit no attempt has been made to estimate the further decrease in the number of its feathered inhabitants.

In spite of the great diminution which this outline of its history shows to have occurred in Bird Rock’s population, the casual observer of to-day will believe with difficulty that it could ever have been more densely inhabited. It is still one of the ornithological wonders of our Atlantic coast, and, comparatively speaking, as well worth visiting as in the time of Audubon.